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Sunday, February 8

Warriors make it official: They're in the Amar'e Stoudemire Sweepstakes!

So The Warriors have thrown their collective hats into the ring for the Amar'e Stoudemire Sweepstakes, attempting to pull off the biggest Warriors trade since two years ago when they acquired Baron Davis. Here's the rub, the price would be Biedrins AND Monta.

That "seems reasonable" for a player of Stoudemire's calibre. Because you know, Super-Stars are frequently held to 4 points like what happened last week by the undersized Azuibuike when the Warriors stomped the Suns.

Biedrins AND Monta doesn't make sense. It's one or the other because the Warriors without either and Amar'e suck just as much as the Warriors with both. Phoenix WITH Stoudemire, Nash and Shaq are 28-21, clinging to the 8th seed in the West by their fingernails. [NOTE: I would love to see the 8th seed Suns get smashed by the dominating Lakers, and Kobe dunks all over the bloated, beast that is Shaq. Payback is a bitch, dude.] That's where the Warriors were last year, and we all know how that turned out. (48 wins and no playoffs in the ridiculously tough Western conference.) And the Warriors aren't even in contention this year. So this year is a waste, and that means they only get one full meaningful year of Stoudemire before he goes onto the free agent market. That's unacceptible.

But that's getting ahead of myself, the Warriors need to have something Phoenix wants. I'm dubious about this myself, but since it's more fun to speculate on possible trades than to look back on this dreary season.

Phoenix apparently wants expiring contracs, for salary cap space. The Warriors don't have that. But the point of salary cap space is to take that money and spend it on quality free agents. So the question is, assuming the Suns had cap space, would they spend it on a reasonably salaried Monta and Biedriens? Why not? They're young talented players that could be the building blocks of a franchise. That's what they are with the Warriors.

Would you rather have Monta and Biedrins or Jianlian, some dude named Ryan Anderson and whatever else the Nets are offering (a rumored deal)? Yeah, me too. So I think the deal is reasonable, but the Warriors would have to do better.

I've pointed out how awesome a Biedrins/Stoudemire teaming would be. Stoudemire by himself with this Warriors squad and still no point guard would equal about 20 wins next year in the West. Which is where the Warriors are at THIS year.

So for the deal to make sense for the Warriors it needs to be Monta, Turiaf (affordable back-up big man) and Randolph who comes off the books after next season. And if they want they can have Marcus Williams and his $1.2 mill expiring after this season.

I actually pulled this deal off in the ESPN trade machine, by throwing in Bellinelli to make the salaries work. So you KNOW it's a good deal.